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Queen Latifah, Mary J. Blige To Star In NBC’s ‘The Wiz’

Queen Latifah and Mary J. Blige will make their way to the small screen for NBC’s remake of The Wiz.

The network has confirmed that Dana Owens, Queen’s legal name, and Blige will join the cast for the grand musical set to premiere this December. Owens will play the wizard, meanwhile, Mary will take on the role of the Wicked Witch of the West.

“We are so happy reuniting with Latifah,” the executive producers, who worked with Latifah on Hairspray, Chicago and Steel Magnolias said in a press release. “We’ve been friends for a long time and we’ve had quite a lot of success together. To see her play the iconic role of the Wiz and make it her own is going to be one of the joys of producing this event.”

Director, Kenny Leon said of Blige, “I can’t wait to watch Mary bring the badness that is Evillene.”

The Wiz was a classic 1975 Broadway production that went on to become a classic film in 1978, starring Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Lena Horne, Nipsey Russell and Richard Pryor.

Clearly, it was “God’s Plan” for Drizzy to take his entire budget for his music video and spend it on various residents and workers in Florida’s hot spot city. That’s right almost a million bucks — $996,631.90 to be exact — was slotted for Drake to shoot the visuals for his latest hit but instead he used all the money to make a difference. And in doing so, he made us cry … multiple times. Just watch the video below.

In a statement the self-professed “6god” said this video was “the most important thing” he’s ever done. We’d agree.